Chapter 204: I’ll be scared
“Kid, you are courting death!”
The people from the Hongdao Association were seething with anger. Yi Yun did not reciprocate them giving him face!
It was because the Hongdao Association appreciated him that they came looking for him. He was a mid-stage Purple Blood rookie, yet Yi Yun turned down their request even when their President personally came. Who did he think he was!
Li Hong’s face turned terrifyingly gloomy. He was holding onto a metal cup which had tipped over on the table. With a light press with his fingers, the cup split into pieces. Under his fingers, such a metal, which had not been specially forged, was as weak as paper.
“What did you just say? I did not hear it. Say it again?”
Li Hong smiled at Yi Yun, still with his Maitreya Buddha look. But everyone knew that Li Hong’s expression was one of extreme anger.
For Li Hong, an influential figure with large numbers of men under him, even the cultivators who had been in the Tai Ah Divine City for 4-5 years would not dare to offend him.
There were severe repercussions by offending Li Hong!
“You didn’t hear it clearly? Say it again? No problem! What I just said was, go f**k yourself…” Yi Yun responded in an articulate manner. For a person who wanted to exploit him, but still pretended to treat him as a brother, how could Yi Yun hold back? They had just formed an organization known as the Hongdao Association, what made them think they were that great?
As for how the Hongdao Association would retaliate, Yi Yun was not worried. The Hongdao Association was an organization that was formed mainly of recruits. People were afraid of it simply because it had a chance of becoming big in the future. But why would Yi Yun be afraid of a future power?
Besides, although the Tai Ah Divine City allowed private battles between cultivators, there were still rules. There were many restrictions for second year soldiers against recruits. Even if recruits were to have private battles amongst themselves, there was a place for that. It could be done privately but not in public. For example, in the streets or in cook houses, fighting was not permitted.
“Did you hear it now?” Yi Yun said in an unclear manner as he took another bite of meat.
Hearing Yi Yun’s words, Li Hong’s voice began to tremble.
“Good! Very good! You think I cannot do anything to you?”
Li Hong began to crush the metal cup in his hands to smithereens.
But Yi Yun was still unfazed. He was apparently in full control of the situation. He sat at the table and simply carried on eating.
In the cook house, Li Hong did not dare to do anything. If they were to fight here, all the tables and chairs would be destroyed. The punishment for that would be something that Li Hong would not be able to afford.
When everyone saw this, they were shocked. Yi Yun was too domineering. He completely did not treat Li Hong seriously.
Li Hong was fuming, but yet he could do nothing.
He gritted his teeth saying, “Kid, you may think that I cannot do anything to you! Perhaps you do not know? In a few days’ time, when you recruits finish your jobs, you rookies have to compete in the arena!”
“Do you know the rules of the rookie competition? The Tai Ah Divine City will use your results over the past few days, the dragon scale runes you’ve earned and your cultivation level to give you an evaluation. You will then have an approximate ranking on the Earth ranking! And all those behind you would have the right to challenge you! By winning against you, they will replace you, taking your spot.”
“By earning so many dragon scale runes, it would be hard for you to have a low ranking! When that happens, I will get the new members of the Hongdao Association to take care of you especially! And you will have no way of refusing this challenge!”
Li Hong snickered. The battles in the arena were very intense. The cultivators would simulate them, as if being in a real battle. It was not surprising for someone to become injured there.
If Yi Yun was challenged repeatedly, he might even end up with a few broken limbs. He would then need to spend his dragon scale runes to heal himself. If he did not have enough dragon scale runes, he would end up having to take a loan. It was even likely he would be bedridden for months. That was a very common occurrence!
“Ranking battle?”
Yi Yun raised his eyebrows. Having been in the Tai Ah Divine City for some time, he knew the rules of the arena.
The arena’s ranking was also the Earth ranking. Every cultivator in the Tai Ah Divine City had a ranking on the Earth ranking no matter how weak they were.
There was no way of refusing a challenge for people on the Earth ranking.
But to prevent people from frivolously challenging others, there were many restrictions placed on the arena battle.
One of them was betting!
This was why Baldy Qin said that one of the fastest ways of earning dragon scale runes was on the arena! If one was strong, one could earn dragon scale runes quickly in the arena!
In every battle, the challenger and the person being challenged had to lay down a bet.
Depending on their rankings, there was a minimum bet limit.
The higher the rank was, the higher the bet limit. For someone to challenge another ranked much higher than himself, the bet he had to lay down was higher!
As such, there was a very high cost to challenging others. Those who had the confidence would fight, while those without the confidence would end up giving resources to others!
In fact, real arena battles often had stakes exceeding the minimum bet!
The bet amount had to be on mutual agreement.
Sometimes, when two rivals face each other, they would keep raising the stakes till it reached a frightening price!
This sort of battle often happened among people at the top of the rankings. This naturally attracted many spectators.
When Qin Haotian managed to unseat the top ranking person on the Earth ranking, the arena was filled with people. Almost all the ten thousand people or so in the Tai Ah Divine City had come to watch.
Even instructors and law-enforcers came to watch!
“You want to fight with me in the arena?” Yi Yun sniggered. He crushed the bones he was chewing on. A bone the size of a thumb nail was finished by Yi Yun.
Ever since he came to the Tai Ah Divine City, he had not had a real, proper match. Back when he was training hard in the Wilderness Divine Hall, his cultivation level had increased. Ever since he absorbed the Heaven Purple Yang Ginseng, his physical strength had greatly increased!
Now, he had even exchanged for the ‘Tai Ah Sacred Technique’. The ‘Tai Ah Sacred Technique’ was a top compendium that included cultivation techniques, fighting skills and movement skills.
If a saber was not taken out to kill, it would be left to rust.
If one did not use a top cultivation technique in battle, the cultivation effect would be greatly reduced.
Yi Yun had already been contemplating to try his hand in the arena in the coming days. He never expected that people would come forward to be his training partner.
And these bunch of training partners did not need payments, they might even give him dragon scale runes too.
There was no way Yi Yun was refusing such a good thing.
“A group of people challenging me? Isn’t that too shameful… I’ll be scared.” Yi Yun gave a look of helplessness.
“Heh! Now you know fear? Too late!” A man behind Li Hong said with a grin, “Now even if you were to kowtow to Brother Hong, it would be useless. You will end up being beaten till your bones break and will then have to spend all of your fortune on medicines!”
When this man said it, the others behind Li Hong began to laugh heartily.
“Just because of herb-picking, you got some dog-sh*t luck in picking a half-dead primordial herb, you think you are capable? Strength is what matters in the Tai Ah Divine City. There’s no f**king use if you are good at picking herbs! By offending our Hongdao Association, don’t expect to survive the next six years in the Tai Ah Divine City!”
“You hick from the Cloud Wilderness, when you enter the arena, I’ll let you know the power of the geniuses from the imperial capital’s families!”
Seeing that they had oppressed Yi Yun, Li Hong’s men were all very happy. Some of them came from the Zhong state’s imperial capital’s families. They were born with a sense of superiority and looked down on other family clans in other states, not to mention a person from the Cloud Wilderness.
Previously, when Yi Yun was being arrogant in front of them, they had wanted to give Yi Yun a good beating. Now that they had oppressed Yi Yun, how could they not add a few more slanders?
But… Li Hong frowned. He felt that Yi Yun was not being truthful. It seemed like he was completely unafraid…
This kid was not timid at all!
“Things don’t change. Kid, just you wait!”
After saying these words, Li Hong led his followers away.
Zhou Kui was left standing there like a dummy. He did not know what to say.
He had originally thought Li Hong wanted to absorb Yi Yun into the Hongdao Association, yet this unexpected result happened…
As for the other cultivators in the cook house, they were all shocked. Most of them were rookies and they did not dare to offend a strong power like the Hongdao Association. They saw Yi Yun get persecuted by the Hongdao Association in a blink of an eye. There were even pledges of beating Yi Yun up so severely in the arena that he would go bankrupt from eating medicine.
How was Yi Yun going to survive in the future?
Many looked at Yi Yun with pity. Li Hong was a second year soldier. He was going to be in the Tai Ah Divine City for another five years!
“Yi… Yi Yun… I did not expect… it would end up like that.” Zhou Kui swallowed a mouthful of saliva and muttered. Although he had always been competing with Yi Yun, they were not life-and-death rivals, he did not wish for this upon Yi Yun.
After all, he was just thirteen years old, and Zhou Kui had always been one-minded. Even in a dispute, he did not really want to cause death on the other.
Zhou Kui felt that he had caused harm to Yi Yun by bringing Li Hong and gang.
Yi Yun was very open-minded. He smiled and picked up the meat on his table and carried on eating. He said unclearly, “Small matter. Don’t mind it. Do you want to eat? This meat tastes great.”
“Uh…” Zhou Kui was speechless. Yi Yun could still eat his meat at this time!